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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Book Review: Anything But Typical

This book tells the story of a teenager autistic boy who loves to write and
struggles to fit in. I was fascinated to read a story from his point of view,
and his own creative stories provided a nice offset to the narrative of his
experiences.

From my review for Materials for Youth class, written in April 2011:

In Anything But Typical, the reader is allowed to see the world through
the eyes of a 12-year-old writer named Jason. His autism often prevents
him from looking people in the face, so he cannot use visual clues to read
people’s moods or meanings. He is also confused by how often
“neurotypicals” (regular people) talk when they have nothing to say, or worse, say things that
they don’t really mean. But through his careful observations, he comes to
understand the people around him and learns that it is not just him, but also
them, who are “anything but typical.”

For instance, Jason’s younger brother Jeremy won’t eat his food if different
types have touched. His mother cannot master even the most basic
technology and gets anxious when taken out of her comfort zone. His Aunt
Carol and Uncle Bobby are too busy bragging about their son Seth’s
accomplishments to recognize his weaknesses. While his aunt and uncle
choose to reject Jason because of his differences, his immediate family embraces
him as he is, and he is actually able to help them work through their own
struggles. As S.D.L. writes for Horn Book Magazine, “The book’s
greatest strength, though, is communicating to readers how some of the same
things that bother Jason might also bother them—whether it is bright lights,
noisy rooms, or foods that touch—and establishing common ground” (289).

This problem novel (as defined by Tunnell and Jacobs, 134) certainly addresses
the issue of autism in a beautiful, realistic story. But more than that,
it also shows Jason as a “typical” 12-year-old dealing with many of the same
issues as his classmates, even if he doesn’t express them in the same
way. Jason’s “powerful and perceptive viewpoint” (Publishers Weekly 49)
and writer’s voice give every young reader something that they can relate
to. While not every reader will be autistic or know someone who is, the
vast majority will be able to relate to the idea of having some trait about
themself that they wish they could hide from a potential new friend. I
believe that young readers will completely sympathize with Jason as he agonizes
over going to the Storyboard convention and the chance of seeing Rebecca there;
his fantasizes of her having a huge facial blemish, or being blind, or being “atypical”
herself in some way; and then his intense disappointment in being initially
rejected by her. Jason shows incredible strength in dealing with the
struggles brought on by both his autism and “typical” adolescence, and he can
serve as a great role model for young readers.